Work Engagement and Job Satisfaction in Healthcare Settings
Summary
Work engagement and job satisfaction in healthcare settings represent critical determinants of both clinical outcomes and workforce stability. Work engagement is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption in professional duties, while job satisfaction reflects a positive emotional response to one’s work environment and conditions. In healthcare, high engagement and satisfaction have been linked to improved patient safety, reduced turnover and enhanced organisational performance. Influential factors include organisational support, leadership style, workload management and individual psychological resources. Globally, the application of the job demands–resources model has illuminated how balancing demands such as emotional labour and time pressure with resources like social support and development opportunities drives both engagement and satisfaction. Practical interventions range from resilience training and emotional intelligence workshops to redesigning shift patterns and strengthening professional identity.
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Work Engagement and Job Satisfaction in Healthcare Settings publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in work engagement and job satisfaction in healthcare settings across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Work engagement: A positive, fulfilling work-related state characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption in one’s role.
Job satisfaction: An individual’s overall affective and cognitive evaluation of their job and work environment.
Job demands–resources (JD-R) model: A theoretical framework positing that job demands (e.g. workload, emotional strain) and job resources (e.g. autonomy, support) predict employee well-being and performance.
Professional identity: An individual’s self-concept derived from perceived membership in a professional group and the internalisation of its values.
Sense of coherence: A global orientation expressing confidence that one’s environment is comprehensible, manageable and meaningful.
Compassion fatigue: Emotional and physical exhaustion resulting from prolonged exposure to patients’ suffering.
Emotional intelligence: The capacity to perceive, understand and manage one’s own and others’ emotions in a work context.
References
- Depression, professional self-efficacy, and job performance as predictors of life satisfaction: the mediating role of work engagement in nurses. Frontiers in Public Health (2024).
- Professional identity and sense of coherence affect the between compassion fatigue and work engagement among Chinese hospital nurses. BMC Nursing (2023).
- Emotional Intelligence among Nurses and Its Relationship with Their Performance and Work Engagement: A Cross‐Sectional Study. Journal of Nursing Management (2023).
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